This invention relates to the installation of software onto information handling systems, sometimes also herein called computer systems, from repositories of software. While the discussion hereinafter will be focused on installation of operating system (OS) software onto systems being manufactured and assembled before delivery to an end user, the method, apparatus and program product will be appreciated to have broader application.
Information handling systems destined to be high-end servers, in particular, are often delivered to an end user with a software pre-install (preload) that can be one of a number of operating systems (AIX, Linux, i5OS, zOS, etc). In order to keep costs low and maintain a high level of quality, the pre-installation process needs to be cost effective and efficient. As a result, it is desirable that the software pre-install process be executed from a test execution platform that can support the various operating systems types as part of a manufacturing and configuring process. Each OS (operating system) has its own delivery mechanism and install image archive that must be maintained.